CJ's Reviews: McKellen, Custody and Tick F***ing Tock

Sir Ian McKellen deserves a feature-length, theatrically released film about his life and career, and he’s got one: McKellen: Playing The Part. It features a sit-down interview with Sir Ian - looking very dapper in jacket and tie - interspersed with loads of footage, photos and other archival materials. Additionally, director Joe Stephenson has shot scenes of a boyhood Ian, played by first Milo Parker and then Scott Chambers, which have a similar affect to dramatic recreations in true-crime documentaries: they work, but you’re constantly wondering whether they’re really necessary.

I am the absolute target market for this film - I love Sir Ian - and find it a little hard to critique. For a novice interested in a general discovery of Sir Ian, I suppose the film - at 92 minutes - is a comprehensive and entertaining enough overview. It covers childhood, the early theatrical career, the mid-career of big theatre and some television, Sir Ian’s coming-out and politicisation, and ultimately the film career. And of course, there’s Sir Ian himself, in that charming jacket and tie, being ever so charming and dapper.

But is the novice really going to go to the cinema to see this film? And if not, why not give the film’s true audience - people who already love Sir Ian - something heftier? Sir Ian deserves at least two hours, more footage from the theatrical days (especially his incredible performances as Edward II and Richard II, both of which are teasingly included here), and more context. An example of the film’s lack of discipline and focus occurs around the Amadeus section, when Sir Ian won a Tony on Broadway. It is minutes into this chunk before the awning of the theatre finally reveals exactly which play Sir Ian was on Broadway with, and then the subsequent natural question - why wasn’t he in the film version? - goes both unasked and unanswered.

There is no discernible point of view here. It’s not the story of Sir Ian’s politicisation, nor his intriguing attitude to theatre versus film work, nor his “early years”; it’s a bit of everything in 92 minutes, and as such, it’s completely entertaining, charming and lovely while also being annoyingly unsatisfying. Now that this exists, it’s unlikely, given Sir Ian is 79, someone is going to make another version of his life, one which extends him, quite simply, a little more time.

CUSTODY

* * * * (out of five)

Xavier Legrand’s debut feature film follows in the footsteps of last year’s Russian masterpiece of divorce and dismay, Loveless. This is a leaner take; if Loveless took a meat cleaver to marriage and its aftershocks, Custody is more like a shiv. Which is to say, still sharp and lethal.

Léa Drucker and Denis Ménochet play the separated couple waiting for their divorce; they have two children, but, as with Loveless, the focus here is on the impact their separation has on their eleven year old son, and it’s not good.

Loveless was, in its quiet way, an epic, a scathing indictment of modern humanity. Custody examines the day to day affect of joint custody and is far more contained and seemingly modest. Yet by the end, it has achieved momentous power. It is meticulously constructed, building with painfully specific intent. Ultimately, it is shattering. This is a film where strangers (at a general public screening at the French Film Festival) and I all checked in with each other afterwards, because we were all so moved, and shaken. A spectacular debut.

TICK F***ING TOCK

I can’t stop thinking about Tick F***ing Tick, the ABC two-part documentary about Australian comedy trio The Doug Anthony All-Stars. I was a huge fan, seeing a bunch of their live shows (including one in Edinburgh) back in the day, which was the late 80s. Tick F***ing Tock is a splendid trip down memory lane, and a lot more.

The fist episode charts their rise alongside the development of member Tim Ferguson’s multiple sclerosis. It is incredibly straightforward storytelling; Tim tells his own tale to camera, the other two - Paul McDermott and Richard Fidler - comment on the various stages of the toupe’s career, and the three of them sit together and reminisce. An elephant in the room - charges of bullying and harassment by Tim against a female critic back in the day - are dealt with and rather summarily dismissed, and talking heads nattering on about how great the boys were are, thankfully, kept to a pretty bare minimum. This is the lads telling their own story, simply, meaningfully and well. I doubt it will appeal to those who’ve never heard of DAAS, as they were also known, and for neophytes, it will be rather hard, based on the footage here, to get what all the fuss was about; their style of university student-y, Young Ones-esque, punkish raffish ruffian humor is definitely not the current vogue. But boy, were they great, and this two-hour celebration is a worthy monument.